The population of the world is expected to increase by almost two billion by 2050. This means that the world will have to prepare to feed two billion more mouths in the coming decades. The demand for food will not only increase by increasing population but also by increasing demand for the food in developing economies like India and China. As these economies are growing and the populations of these countries are becoming more and more affluent, it has led to a tremendous increase in the demand for meat and dairy products. All in all, it is believed that the world needs to double the production of its food capacity to meet the increased demands (Foley, para.1-4).
Throughout the history when men had to increase the food production for meeting the increased demands it depended on increasing the area of agricultural land by clearing forests and grasslands. But, we have reached to a point that clearing anymore forest or grassland area will have catastrophic effects on the environment. Agriculture already is among the biggest contributors to global warming. It also uses most of our water resources and is a major polluter of land and water bodies. Hence, if the world needs to meet the increasing demands it no longer has the luxury of clearing out more forest and grassland areas and converting it to agriculture land. There’s no doubt that the world is facing a big challenge, but it can be solved. Through judicious planning and implementation of advanced agricultural techniques, the increased demand can be met.
The first and foremost thing to do is increase the food production on the agricultural land we already have. More than half of the agricultural lands lie in the underdeveloped or developing countries which still employ outdated farming techniques which result in low yield. Steps can be taken to increase the yield by providing these countries with advanced farming technology and practices. This will increase the yield several times over and will decrease the food gap we will face in future. The second step is to use our resources judiciously. Using advancement in the farming techniques with a combination of commercial and organic farming with efficient irrigation system will help increase the production without putting any extra pressure on the environment (Foley para.5-6). One major step is to reduce the food wastage all over the world. It is estimated that up to 50 percent of the total food weight is wasted before it is consumed. That is too high a number for anything which goes to waste. Even before we take a single step towards increasing the production, we should focus on reducing the waste. If we tackle this issue, it will be the most immediate and effective step towards achieving the goal of food security. If the world focuses on this big issue which somehow seems to be not on the top of its agenda, the problem of food shortage can be solved and its demand can be met (Foley para.11).
The only problem is the implementation of the above steps. As Foley mentioned in his article, the main step is to increase the production on existing agricultural land by exporting latest farming techniques to the developing and under-developed countries. The only question is that will the developed countries will help the developing and under-developed countries? Dairy and agricultural products form a large portion of a developed country’s export and are a big profitable business. Exporting the advanced farming techniques to under-developed or developing countries will result in those countries becoming more or less self-sufficient in their food requirement. This will eat away the profits of developed countries. Here comes the problem. Will the countries let go of their personal gains and concentrate on meeting the world food demand in future. Until and unless they do, the problem of food shortage will stand by us for the foreseeable future.
Works Cited
Foley, Jonathan. "Feeding 9 Billion - National Geographic." Feeding 9 Billion - National Geographic. National Geographc, 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/>.
